Let Love Grow!

My best friend Laura and her new hubs (omg I can say that now!) are such incredibly creative and crafty people! All of the art and a lot of the furniture in their apartment is handmade by those two little artisans. In fact, let’s throw it back old-school style… in my second blog post ever on Our Cozy Cubbyhole, I mentioned visiting Laura and Dave’s first apartment together and being envious of how personal and home-y it felt. So naturally, when they announced their engagement, I knew their wedding would have the same handmade, personal, home-y feel.  And I was right!

The theme of the wedding was “Let Love Grow” and they featured trees as a main part of their invitations and decor. The stand out of the night was definitely the handmade beaded tree centerpieces they made for every table! Using hundreds of strands of wire and hundreds of hand-placed beads, the adorable couple (and any family members they could rope in!) created about 30 gorgeous fall trees over the past few months. Every family get-together involved some sort of obligatory beading session!

Thank you for the original photo, Erin!

But their hard work paid off because the reception room looked incredible with the perfect centerpieces.  The best part is that I got to bring one home all the way to California! It now sits on my fake mantel shelf above the couch, where I can look at it and think of the wonderful wedding day as well as the incredible people that poured their time and love into making that little tree!

Maybe someday I can get a full DIY tutorial out of them but in the meantime it is so nice to enjoy the beauty of someone else’s DIY masterpiece. Thank you Laura and Dave… let love grow!

Dave and Laura!  –  Thank you for the original photo, Erin!

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, 2 Weddings, & a Dorm

Did you miss me?! After an incredibly wonderful 11-day adventure around the East Coast two weeks ago, I am finally getting caught up. I could break this up into a few posts but then I decided to spare you a week of my babbling and condense it to one post. So you’re probably wondering why it took me so long to get one measly post together so, without further ado, let me present the most chaotic map in the history of the universe!Are you as confused as I am? My head is still spinning trying to put all of the pieces together! I guess the easiest way is to start from the very beginning (a very good place to start – for those musical theater friends).

On Thursday, September 27, Walker and I hopped on a red-eye at 1am (after working all day on Wednesday first of course) headed for the east coast. After a very early morning connection through Minneapolis St.Paul Airport, we landed in Philadelphia, PA at 10am. Our friend James (the groom-to-be!) picked us up and we drove to Toms River, NJ. Thankfully, we were done traveling for a few days and got to celebrate the beautiful wedding of James and Kristen. Walker was in the groom’s party and I tagged along with the girls as an extra pair of hands with the bridal party (a big thank you to Kristen for including meeeee!). I didn’t get many pictures of the bride and groom so I will share a beautiful photo by the photographer but Walker and I managed to get a few good pics!

Photo By: KSS Photography

Awww yay! <3

After the wedding was over, Walker dropped me off at the Tom’s River bus station on Sunday (Sept 30) on his way back to the Philadelphia Airport (to go home for the week… his work wouldn’t give him the time off. Boooooo work). I took a bus up to Port Authority in Manhattan and then took the subway to Brooklyn. There I met up with my GORGEOUS AND AMAZING roommates from college. I forgot to take a new pic (Boooo Erika) but remember this photo from last spring?They are amazing! We spent the entire night chatting and reminiscing, all while eating NY pizza (OH HOW I MISSED YOU!) and drinking Brooklyn beer. :)

At 5:30am on Monday, I sleepily cabbed it over to LaGuardia Airport, where I caught a plane to Erie, PA (connecting through Cleveland, OH, of course because nothing is ever easy). Once in Erie, I took a series of taxis and buses to get to Edinboro University…. where my brother goes to college!

I spent Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday hanging out with my brother and his awesome friends. We toured the campus, the town (during fall… so pretty to see the leaves change!), and had some serious sibling bonding time. It was so nice to see his life out there! I almost forgot to take a picture of the two of us, but I managed to remember at 1am on Wednesday morning… 4 hours before I left.Just because no trip is every truly complete without a little travel stress, I got a call from the Erie taxi driver at 6am that he was running 20 minutes behind schedule because all of the night cab drivers quit! I only padded my trip with a half hour to catch the train so I started to panic. I had called the cab the night before to avoid this mess! So after almost dropping me off at the bus station instead of the train station, the taxi made it to the train station 5 minutes before the train left!  WHEW!

The train left Erie at 7:20am and arrived in Schenectady, NY, at about 3pm. Long trip but worth it because I was finally able to stay put for a few days! I spent the rest of the trip fulfilling my maid of honor duties for my best friend’s wedding events in my hometown. It was so much fun!! We had a birthday party for the groom on Thursday, the rehearsal dinner on Friday, and the wedding on Saturday (October 6)! It was such a blast and their wedding was absolutely amazing. My speech even went well so I was happy. ;)

Happy Birthday, Dave! :)

The bridal party with our gifts (gorgeous scarves!) at the rehearsal dinner!

Congratulations Laura and Dave! xoxo  –  Thanks for the picture, Erin!

Walker flew in for Laura’s wedding (with Bo!) on Friday so after the wedding was over, we spent Sunday watching football with my family. We even napped with the puppies on the couch! :)

We flew back to Los Angeles (via Baltimore and Milwaukee) on Monday morning and landed in the afternoon.  Sadly, it was back to work the next day so we are still getting caught up.

As crazy as the trip was, I had an incredible time and was able to see and celebrate with so many people I love. Both weddings were perfect and completely suited to each couple. I couldn’t have asked for a more successful adventure. Perhaps I will share more pictures with you at some point but I will bid you adieu for now!

DIY Vertical Herb Garden

Walker and I are happy that the blistering heat is starting to work its way out of Los Angeles (okay, so it isn’t quite gone yet but fingers crossed!) and we are gearing up for cooler weather. One thing that I have been wanting to do as soon as summer ended is to plant a new herb garden (mine cooked to a crisp in August last year). Since the heat isn’t quite gone yet and because there are still some fairly cold nights in winter, I wanted to make something that was very portable and could easily take up residence on our kitchen table in front of the window. I also figured that, for a lot of you, an indoor herb garden was your only option since you have REALLY cold winters!

So I began planning.  With only one window and a very tiny kitchen table, I knew I had to think small.  I saw some cute hanging planter options but that wouldn’t be portable or allow me to bring the herbs outdoors to enjoy a moderate afternoon. They also typically required a few holes in the walls, which I try to avoid as a renter! So then I thought… why not go vertical? I did a little more research and only found some very large scale vertical planters for outdoor use (such as this one that is over 4 feet tall). So I decided to adapt the idea for indoor use (and do it as inexpensively as possible).

And that brings us to the part where you usually see a lot of pictures and a few steps.  But I am taking a walk on the wild side today and am trying something a little different… a video tutorial!


For those who can’t watch videos at work or gave up listening to me blabber after a few minutes, here are the basic steps:

DIY Vertical Herb GardenDIYVerticalHerbGarden_Watermark2

Supplies:
8.5 inch pot with holes for drainage (I used terracotta but feel free to get a fun ceramic one if you’d prefer) – $3.29
Four 4.5 inch pots with holes for drainage – $1 each = $4
24 inch lightweight (but NOT flexible) metal rod – $1.29
Potting Soil – $5
Herbs (you can get whatever you’d like but I got five 4 inch herbs at $2.50 each) – $12.50

1. Fill the 8.5 inch pot about two-thirds of the way with soil and pack it down very tightly.

2. Insert the metal rod into the center of the pot.  The soil should be packed enough that the rod is already able to stand up on its own.

3. Slide a 4.5 inch clay pot over the rod and set it at an angle off to one side. Use soil to build around the small pot to bury it a little and create a supportive base for the weight of the pot (none of the weight should really be on the rod. In fact, it should actually help stabilize the rod). Place soil into the small pot in order to help anchor it in place. It should be very sturdy before you move onto the next step.

4. One at a time, slide the remaining 4.5 inch pots over the rod and rest them on the previous pot at an angle going in the opposite direction. The base should rest on the edge of the previous pot and the top should rest against the rod.  Fill the base of each pot with soil to anchor it down before moving on to the next pot. If the entire structure starts to lean, adjust the angle and support of the first (partially buried) 4.5 inch pot. The rest of the pots depend on the angle and support of this first pot.

5. Now that you have the structure of the planter in place, it is time to plant your herbs and enjoy! Make sure you give them all a good watering to begin with and then water according the the provided instructions.

6. Create fun herb labels using wine corks and wood BBQ skewers. Use a marker to write the name of the herb on the cork, cut the skewers down to a smaller size, insert the pointy end of the skewer into the cork, and place the opposite end into the soil. All labelled! :)

So there you have it: a DIY Vertical Herb Garden for indoor use in the fall for under $14 ($26 if you count the herbs!). We love our fun, funky little herb garden! Not only does it make our kitchen smell like magic, but it is also a new sculptural centerpiece for our kitchen table!**So let’s get back to that video thing. I positively hate watching myself on camera but I would love your opinion, especially if you feel differently!  Yay or nay on future video tutorials? Did you enjoy the change of pace? I will aim to make them shorter in the future but I was just having so much fun playing with dirt on my kitchen table. ;)**

Erika

I’m Erika, an interior designer with an aesthetic that is a mix of California Bohemian, Mid-Century, and Scandinavian influences with pops of fun color and loads of natural materials. Plus plants, plants, and more plants!

My sweet family (Walker, Juniper & Hank, as well as pups Arlo & Guillermo) just reloacted from Los Angeles, CA, to Lincoln, NE. We would love for you to follow along with us on this journey!

 
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